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Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Johnson talks to attendees during a free football camp at Oakland Tech High School in Oakland, Calif. on Saturday, July 10, 2010. (Dean Coppola/Staff)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Johnson (11) throws for a first down during the fourth quarter of an NFL football game against the New York Giants in Tampa, Fla. on Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009. (AP Photo/Reinhold Matay)

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Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Josh Johnson, center, talks with coaches during a free football camp at Oakland Tech High School in Oakland, Calif. on Saturday, July 10, 2010. (Dean Coppola/Staff)

Josh Johnson has heard the scuttlebutt, so he chooses his words carefully when talking about a possible reunion with Jim Harbaugh, his former coach at the University of San Diego.

Johnson has been mentioned in rumor mills as a possible acquisition target of the 49ers and their new coach. A former Oakland Tech High quarterback, Johnson forged an NFL career with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers largely as a result of Harbaugh’s tutelage at USD.

“I don’t know what’s going on with that situation, but we’re locked out anyway,” Johnson said. “So I’m still part of the Buccaneers, as far as I know. I wish I could speak on it, but I can’t.”

Even if the rumors are true, no trades can be made while the players are locked out by NFL owners. But Johnson, still just 24 despite being in the NFL three seasons, has no hesitation about talking up Harbaugh’s qualifications to coach at the highest level and what kind of impact he thinks he will have directing professional players as opposed to college kids.

“Once I saw what he was doing at Stanford, I knew he’d be in the NFL soon,”Johnson said. “Just being around him for three years, knowing how competitive he is and understanding the things he was teaching in college, I felt like it was only a matter of time.”

Johnson, who will be one of several NFL players from the East Bay participating in a benefit basketball game Saturday at Laney College, was the quarterback engine that drove Harbaugh’s offense at nonscholarship Division I-AA USD in 2005 and 2006 and put the coach on the radar of Stanford and other Division I schools. The Toreros went 22-2 over those two seasons.

Johnson played so well in 2005, throwing for 3,256 yards and 36 touchdowns, that he was approached with full Division I scholarship offers for 2006. Harbaugh encouraged him to go, but Johnson was loyal to one of the few coaches who recruited him out of Oakland Tech and elected to stay at USD, even though it meant paying his own tuition.

In 2006, Johnson had another tremendous season, throwing for 3,220 yards and 34 touchdowns and also rushing for 720 yards and 11 more scores. He led the Football Championship Subdivision in total offense, passing yards and passing efficiency.

In a profile of Johnson by the San Diego Union-Tribune that year, Harbaugh was asked about Ohio State’s Troy Smith, who was on his way to winning the Heisman Trophy.

“I’ve seen Troy Smith play,” Harbaugh said. “Our guy’s better.”

Coincidentally, Harbaugh is now coaching the NFL team for which Smith started several games last year. Because the 49ers have declined a free-agent tender on Smith for 2011, it appears he may not be back. The question now is whether the 49ers will make a play to replace Smith with Johnson.

“Even if we don’t get together, there’s always going to be a mutual relationship between us,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of respect there, because I know what he did for me as a player. I know how much I grew to love him and his family. I felt like it was more than just a coach-player type of thing.”

Johnson was quick to say he has enjoyed his time with the Buccaneers, particularly under second-year coach Raheem Morris, who transformed Tampa into a 10-win team last year after going 3-13 in 2009. The downside for Johnson, who made six starts in 2009, is that 2009 first-round draft choice Josh Freeman became the full-time starter in 2010.

“I feel like one day I will have my opportunity, but I enjoyed last year a lot,” he said. “Even though I wasn’t playing much, it was a very successful year on my end I feel because my development has increased.”

Whatever happens, Johnson is confident Harbaugh will guide the 49ers to a new era of glory.

Carl Steward has been a sportswriter for Bay Area News Group newspapers for more than 40 years, covering all manner of sports as a beat writer, columnist and jack-of-all-trades reporter. He has covered numerous Super Bowls, World Series, major golf tournaments and even did turns covering horse racing's Triple Crown and soccer's World Cup. He has also written the popular light-hearted "Darting Here and There" column for many years.

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